That's Azurite
by Adishailan
Summary: The fusion doesn't take long to realize she doesn't like to laugh. She loves to. Her chuckles burst out from her lips, growing from a nasal chuckle to gentle, rolling screeches of hysteria. That's Peridot. The way her eyes warm with the little smiles she gives out, like soft embers bursting into flame? That's Lapis. But what about the rest of her? What about Azurite?


**Okay so this one is inspired by the fantastic amazingness of Steven Universe and the amazing fantasticness of my Tumblr friend divinestrengthbeautifulgoddess (here's looking at you kid ;) )**  
 **I love love love Peridot and Lapis's developing friendship and, other than Steven, I can't imagine them doing their first fusion with anyone else. This got me and DSBG chatting and brain storming about how a fusion could come about, which was what this was originally going to be. Then I became a lot more excited by the fusion itself and it went in a slightly different direction. I'm still happy with this though.**  
 **Many thanks to the lovely Akirys for being my beta for this, and thanks to anyone who has chosen to read this. I hope you enjoy it.**  
 **p.s. here's a link to a picture of the Azurite rock www . / other-info / graphics / azurite-gemstone . jpg (delete the spaces)**

* * *

When she first opens her eyes, musical instruments fall to the ground around her. Surprised is a mild word for what she feels as she stares down at two sets of hands with two sets of wide eyes. What? How? She- they had been playing a new song and-  
Feeling bewildered, she stares at the long limbs stretching out below her. She doesn't get to feel like that for long, though, as in the next moment she is no longer there. Replaced by her two halves as they fall to the ground and gaze at each other in disbelief.

It takes a long time and a lot of things to happen before she forms again. But she does.  
When she comes back, she doesn't refer to herself as I at first. She calls herself 'us' and 'we'. She knows Lapis isn't ready for that yet. She- they- can wait... but they are really happy this time. They aren't an accident. They are on purpose, a freely given choice. It makes a different to them, a huge one.  
Their arms stretch out before them, a blotted mixture of green and blue circular waves, together but not quite mixed... still a little separate, but beautiful too in how the colours weave around each other.  
An excited grin stretches at their face as they spin around, hands curving round their body, stretching up to almost touch the roof of the barn.  
They then start to babble about how happy they are to be back, hands exploring their face and hitting their second set of eyes, making them snort with laughter and shout HEY at the same time.  
This is fantastic, brilliant- Steven! They've got to show Steven. He will love this.

* * *

His reaction is brilliant, amazing and everything to them. They pick him up with one set of hands and gently ruffle his hair with the others.  
"Oh I- we- we didn't know how much we wanted to meet you until this moment." They laugh, tripping over their words as a spare slender hand tucks one of the diamond shape braids behind their ear.

"I'm really happy to meet you too! What's your name?"

They stop laughing. Name... but... they have names already... they feel a bit unsteady.

"Hmmm... how about Peralapaly? Wait no... that's not a stone..."

Steven's voice brings them back to this planet with a soft bump.

"Lapidot?" They smile.

Steven and the fusion start laughing, taking it in turns to suggest ludicrous names.

"Hey, wait! Wait! I've got just the thing!" Steven burst out with shining eyes and all the enthusiasm of a excited puppy. Not that they have ever seen an excited puppy. They just know what they are seeing in their friend's expression and actions, is the most amazing and astounding thing they could ever experience.  
So they nod and patiently watch as Steven runs up the stairs and rummages through his room.  
With a smiling chuckle they carefully sit themselves down on the sofa, knees up to their chest as they curiously pick up one of the cushions and place it on their palm. There is stitching on it, shoddy and messy. It reads: STEVEN'S SUPER SOFT SCUSHION  
She smiles.

"HERE IT IS!" She- they shake their head and look towards Steven as he sits next to them.

"Okay, Connie gave this to me a little while ago. It's a book about gems! There are so many in here, there's bound to be a picture of you! Then we'll find your name!"

They softly lean over him to look at the book, blinking with both sets of eyes as they take in all the pictures of different dorment gems.

"Hmmm... while you've got different colours with liney patterns, your green and blue is quite separate so you can't be Chrysocolla... and you're too blue to be Maw-sit-sit, which is a shame as that's a really cool name."

"No, we're not being called Maw-sit-sit." While it would be amusing to watch someone say that, they were sure it would get old quick.

"Hmm... how about Serpentine... no... still not blue enough, also that's too liney. You've got a lotta circles... and you have both green and blue, but it's different from your shades when you're Peridot and Lapis. I mean some of it's the same, but you've got darker and lighter shades too. So..."

"How about that one?" they interupted, pointing their finger at a gem that matched the digit perfectly.

"Woah! How'd I miss that?! That one's so you! Although, these ones don't always look like that, there's a different one here that's really dark blue."

"Have you decided then?" they ask.

"Yeah! I mean, if you're okay with it. You've got to like the name too."

"... I think it's a gem of a name," they murmer, gaze intent on Steven as he seems to light up from the inside.

"Yeah! I- uh- it rocks!"

They through their head back with a laugh, starting with a soft chuckle and bursting out into a loud 'bwah hah!' as they nod and nod.

"Okey-dokey, nice to meet you A-"

"Azurite."

Azurite looks around to see Garnet grinning ear to ear from the doorway.  
They stare at Garnet for a long time, mixed feelings swirling through their mind.  
On the one hand this is a crystal gem, one of the ones Lapis still hadn't quite forgiven... on the other hand... this was Garnet. Garnet who had taught Peridot not to fear fusion. Garnet who helped her help Lapis...  
Azurite blinked and nodded to themselves. Garnet is okay. She was a bit shy of her still but... she's okay.

"Hello Garnet... yeah we- I'm Azurite..."

Garnet grins even bigger and... starts. to. vibrate.

"Does she usually do that?" Azurite ask Steven from the corner of her mouth.

* * *

"So what do you think your powers are? I mean, in the book, it says people believe Azurite uhh... 'stimulates the intellect, awakening the development of psychic and intu- intuit- something abilities- brings inner vision with spiritual guidance and is ben- good- for exploring past or alternate lives... although they seem to be writing about the blue version of the stone. It says the green version is a mix of Azurite and some other mineral..."  
Azurite nods, holding out a hand for the book as Steven pauses mid-stride, feet sinking slightly in the loose beach sand.

"Nevermind," He sighs, shutting the book and tucking it into his sandwich shaped backbag. "It doesn't say much, just that the green and blue one is different. Anyway this book is probably wrong, it says Amethyst is supposed to soothe the mind and emotions and stop people eating and drinking too much."

"Hmm... that is an inaccurate representation of her. By Peridot's memories she is good at the first but the later is dubious."

Steven beams at the familiar formal tone of Azurite's words, grabbing a hand and attempting to drag her to the boardwalk.  
An odd sort of tug of war game soon starts as Azurite pretends to resist his pull for a few moments, before sweeping him back and into her arms.

"No fair!" He laughs as she picked him up and places him on her shoulders. Azurite laughs again, feeling pleased she is to spend the day with Steven, following him around the town on the instruction of both Garnet and Steven... and herself, to be honest.

As they walk though it and Azurite sees all the people and places and things, she starts to reflect on what she's feeling at these discoveries.  
Lapis would usually be accepting but indifferent to the odd variety of humans. Peridot would be inititally uncertain or distainful then extremely excited and enhtusiastic about their technological products.  
Azurite finds herself interested instead. She is a bit quieter, smiling at many of the things Steven shows her and laughing heartely at others. She's also really curious about the people here which is strange because Peridot isn't usually interested in humans and Lapis certainly isn't.  
This, while confusing, doesn't stop her from getting into lots of different conversations with the people. She particularly likes the one called Jenny, with golden rings in her ears and the smell of salty dairy.

"Cheese, I know. I reek of it! I just came off shift. But I know what'll sort this out!"

Perfume is an interesting human product as well. Kind of chemically smelling but still nice, different to anything Lapis or Peridot have known... but Azurite now knows it...  
She likes that the human wants to share it with her, even if she does complain about having to rub it on twice the number of wrists than usual.  
As they go along they meet many humans and hear tales of even more. Steven won't let her talk with the little one called Onion (which is a very peculiar name, is he formed from Onions?) for some reason, though. She sees him following after them a lot though, and waves at him a few times. She's not sure why Steven seems to find the smile he gives her back peterbing.  
Azurite shrugs at this, enjoying the fact that she shrug twice as much. She doesn't, however, enjoy having to bend over all the time to get into the different buildings in town.  
Most of them are okay, the pizza place was fine as it was quite empty and the Jenny showed her some interesting thin-papered books, or 'magazines' as she calls them. Azurite likes the ones with the pretty drawings on people's skin, although the Jenny seemed upset that it was in her magazine collection for some reason, and started grumbling something about sour milk products.  
Azurite does not like the donut building however... or, more accurately, she does not like the Lars.

"Oh great, another freak," he says as Azurite side steps through the door, careful not to shatter the glass as she squeezes in.

"Freak?" she asks, voice like ice and eyes even colder.

"Uh... Lars didn't mean it like that. Right, Lars?" says the nervous blond one. "Here, how about you have a donut instead? On the house for a new customer."

Azurite turns to look at her, taking in the short height, similar to that of her Peridot. The blond woman looks nervous as she meets her gaze.  
Azurite tries to dial back the icy expression on her face as she squats down to a more regular height and nods to her.  
The small almost-smile, that's creeping on Azurite's face as she reaches out for this 'dough-nut' quickly flickers out as she hears the hissed conversation behind her.

"Why'd you bring that thing out here Steven? Did you see the way it looked at me? Are you sure it's not going to attack us like those freaky monsters you fight. I mean look at it's size, it's skin, it's not norma-"

" s."

The gangly human turns around and seems to go several shades paler as Azurite straightens up, leaning over him slightly as her head meets the cieling.

"Uh- I- Steven! What is-" the human splutters.

"You don't get to talk about me like I'm not here." Her voice, already at subartic levels, drops another hundred degrees. "Let me make this abundantly clear for your primative understanding: My name is not 'it'. I am not a thing. Just as you are not a thing but, by the way you act, are most likely treated like one. Not once have I heard anyone around this town mention you as they told me about those who live here. By my assessment, you are most likely unappreciated and unloved, and for good reason. Am I correct? Yes, it appears by your expression that I am."

"A-Azurite- calm down," Steven's voice wavered from somewhere behind her, but Azurite wasn't listening.

"You think that you are not as much a freak as you percieve me to be. Fusion is not freakish. You are projecting your own sad, unloveable existance onto others so to not deal with them yourself. *You* are the frea-"

"AZURITE, STOP!"

Azurite stops, the lights in the room flickered and turned back on as she blinked with two sets of eyes and looked down to her right. Steven had brought his fist down on her leg, hard.

"Azurite, stop," he tells her.  
She blinks, looking at him then at the other humans in the shop. The little blond one was looking at her with worried eyes and thin lips. The human she was berating had gone very, very pale, face screwing up slightly as he turned on his heel and stormed out of the back.

"Steven, you'd better go," the blond human murmured, before turning around and following the other.

Azurite stared down at Steven as he turned away from her and silently left the store.

"Steven?" She calls as she tries to squeeze out of the building. He looks back at her briefly with a sigh, before motioning to her to follow him as he sits down on the edge of the boardwalk.  
As she joins him, she finds one set of her hands wringing themselves.

 _'we made him upset. why? we didn't insult *him*'_

 **'Perhaps this is a bad idea. Perhaps he's wants you back, Peridot. You're not as mean as me. I should just** -'

' _what? no, Lapis! that was me too. when he called us 'freak', when he treated us like a thing- well, you were thinking about some sad things and I- well, I mean... he didn't deserve to say that about you.'_

' **...Peridot... I-'**

"Lars said something bad about you. I'm sorry about that, Azurite."  
The world brightens and the voices fade into the background of Azurite's mind.  
"But you shouldn't have said all those things to Lars," he continues, looking up at her with shining eyes.

"He called us 'it', Steven," Azurite whispers, hands wraping around her chest. "I won't have him call Lapis a thing. She's so much more than that. It took everyone so long to show her that she's not a monster. And Peridot! She's so self concious most of the time and he was insulting our size and our skin and- and- he called me a freak, compared me to the corrupted gems... I don't want to be a freak. I'm- I'm not defective, I'm not a mistake. This time I'm on purpose Steven and it feels- it felt so good..."  
As they both fall into silence, a distant roll of thunder breaks them from their thoughts.

"I get why you're upset, Azurite... Lars said something mean. But he doesn't know all this... Did you need to say something mean back?" her friend murmurs, staring out at the grey ocean with a sad shine to his eyes.  
And Azurite realises that she has dissapointed her Steven. She feels... well, the word horrible would probably be the best description... She needs to explains why she reacted like that.

"I'm both Peridot and Lapis Lazuli, Steven, correct?"

"I know, Peridot sometimes has trouble with... uh, well..."

"Peridot has trouble separating insults from comedy sometimes," Azurite finishes. "I don't have that problem Steven. Anyway, she's getting better with that, more careful, more thoughtful. If I was making a cruel joke, it would be easier to explain, but that is not it... I wouldn't do that... it's just... that human just said things to hurt both of my gems. I protect those I- I protect my friends, be it with a shield, words or... something else."

"But other people love Lars too. You can't say he's unloved like he deserves to be like that. No one deserves it and it's not true."  
Azurite sighs, looking out at the dark ocean.

"...You're right. No one deserves that... I am sorry, Steven," she murmurs, watching as Steven gives another sigh and looks up at her with a soft, sad smile.

"It's not me you need to say sorry to, Azurite."

* * *

Azurite stares at the pathetic huma- at the Lars as he strolls along the street, kicking a can in front of him so hard it bounces off a lamp and wacks him in the shin.  
She glares up at the overcast sky, then back at the human who is now huddled over his leg, making pained squeaking noises.

"Okay. Insulting him was beneath us. I can see that now," she murmurs to herself, before wincing at the thought of Steven hearing her say that. Yeah, she can see the expression he'd make even now.  
Grumbling to herself, she moves from her spot beside the pizza building and stands in front of the human.

"Are you okay?" she asks him. The Lars's head shoots up. His red face quickly pales as he shoots back away from her, tripping over his own feet and falling flat on his back.  
Azurite stares at him and, oddly, finds herself chuckling. His reaction is similar to the sort Peridot sometimes has.

"Don't hurt me," he squeals, and Azurite's smile drains.

"Hey. I am not going to hurt you... You may think I'm a monster, but I'm not."  
Azurite blinks confusedly as the Lars makes that squeaking noise again and scrambles back against a building wall. Oh... she'd growled that last bit, hadn't she.  
"Look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said those things. I was harsh."

"Y-yeah you were. You-"

"Shut up. I'm not done yet."  
The Lars shuts up. Azurite gazes up at the sky once more and drops down next to him with a huff, wrapping her arms around her knees.

"You know what I am, right? Steven said you know about fusion a little bit, that I'm two gems. Well… It's hard to know, seeing as I've only existed properly for a day, but I think- I think we may like to lash out on others sometimes... and what I said about you projecting on others... well, I wanted you to feel how I felt too, you know, when you said I was freakish. I'm Azurite; I'm not a thing and I don't want to think of myself as a 'freak'. My gems have felt like for a long time and we once thought that about my kind, fusions, too... we still do slightly, in the back of their minds. They haven't even completely accepted the fact that I'm what I am yet. Why do you think I look like this? Why do you think my colours are separate?" Azurite looked down at her hands, tightening the mottled digits into tight fists before looking around at the Lar- at Lars. "I was putting all the sadness and the anger I was hiding from myself onto you, and you... you didn't deserve it and I know now you're not unloved. I am sorry, Lars."  
There was a long silence as Lars simply goggled at Azurite.

"Ok," he said, before biting his lip and glancing around. "I uh- I'm- you know I didn't really mean it like that, right? Freak is- I- It was obvious I didn't mean that really..."  
Lars trailed off while looking at his hands, a heavy frown on his face that faded as a large hand softly patted down his hair.

"I get it. We both need to be more careful with our words."

"...Maybe *you* do."

"Be careful, human."

They blinked at each other and, oddly, started to laugh.

"I still don't get why you don't like your skin, though," Lars sighed as the chuckles faded and he leaned back against the brick wall. "It's kinda cool, like this tattoo I saw once."

"Tattoo? What's that?"  
Azurite finds it interesting how excited Lars gets by this as he exclaims his disbelief and jumps up, waving at her to follow him as he half runs, half jogs to a small shop with 'JA Tattoos' written along the top, pointing out the images just inside the glass.

"OH! It's that skin meepmorp!"

"Huh?!"

But Azurite isn't listening as she bends down to Lars's level and gazes at all the pretty designs.

"Man, I wish I could get a tattoo," Lars mutters as he gazes at them.  
Azurite looks at the picture of a green alien head, then to Lars and back again.

"Watch this," she whispers to him with a toothy grin before squinting down at her arm.  
The swirls of green and blue shifted, swirling around each other until they formed the bulbous triangular shape of the head, blue splodges rippling and reforming into a set of eyes.

"Oh my god, that is so fr- uh, so cool?"

"You bet it is," she laughs, standing up as she watched the colours shift and ripple on her arm into a star, a water droplet, a smile.  
Lars squints at her, then shrugs.

"Whatever."

"I've gotta go show Steven this! Bye, Lars!"

"Uh, yeah, bye... Az."

* * *

Eventually the sun starts to set and Azurite realises the day has to end, as does her time together.  
But, as she smiles down at Steven one last time, watching as he traces his finger over the blotched picture she had made of him, she knows it won't be the last time she's together.

"Thanks for helping me find my name, Steven," she tells him, ruffling her friend's hair.

"No prob Bob."

"It's Azurite," she chuckles.

She will reform again, one day, and she will find out more things about herself. Such as the way her skin blends can create more than just pictures and the fact that she likes jokes, really good ones. Sometimes she will tell them, weaving stories about different things with the use of the pictures formed on her body, until the punchline creeps up, taking her captive audience (Steven) by delighted suprise. She won't describe herself as a comedian, though. She's not like Sardonyx. She will find she enjoys satire, mixing in soft sarcasm and strange double meanings as she makes people laugh. Well as she makes Steven laugh. That's Peridot. She will also use her four arms to make four sets of farting noises for him, with a soft smile. That's Lapis.  
She never makes fun of others though or tells any self-depreciating jokes like Smokey Quarts sometimes does. Instead she will brag and tell stories and laugh. That's the both of them.

That's Azurite.


End file.
